Current Digest of the Russian Press, Vol. 77, No. 38 – Table of Contents

UNITED RUSSIA POISED TO WIN MOST ELECTIONS; EXPERT: MAIN PROBLEMS ARE VOTER COERCION, VOTE MANIPULATION, PRESSURE ON OBSERVERS

(By Natalya Glukhova. Novaya gazeta Europe, Sept. 15, 2025, https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2025/09/15/vybory-prevrashchaiutsia-v-klounadu-i-beskonechnyi-prazdnik. Condensed text:) Editors’ Note. – Three days of voting took place in Russia Sept. 12-14. In all, voters elected 21 governors, 11 new convocations of legislative assemblies and dozens of municipal Dumas. The voting results proved predictable: Candidates from the ruling party are leading in the gubernatorial and legislative assembly races. Their opponents won only in a few small towns. . . …

NG: RFCP IS STILL COUNTRY’S SECOND PARTY, BUT LDPR RAN BETTER CAMPAIGN; EXPERT: THE RESULTS DO NOT INDICATE WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN 2026 STATE DUMA ELECTIONS DUE TO HIGHLY LOCAL NATURE

(By Darya Garmonenko and Ivan Rodin. Nezavisimaya gazeta, Sept. 16, 2025, p. 1. Condensed text:) On Sept. 15, the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) tallied the results of the single day of voting (SDV), [and] Duma party leaders made their statements. Predictably, United Russia won all the elections – both gubernatorial and regional. Contrary to expectations, the RFCP overall retained its position as the country’s second party and first opposition force. However, the LDPR did a better job than the Communists campaigning for legislative elections in [Russian] Federation regions. . . …

KOSTIN: CONSERVATIVE TREND PREVAILED IN VOTE, INDICATING A ‘MATURATION’ OF POLITICAL SYSTEM; RIVALRY AMONG FOUR ESTABLISHMENT OPPOSITION PARTIES ‘DRAMATIC’ AS 2026 ELECTIONS TAKE SHAPE

(By political analyst Konstantin Kostin. Izvestia, Sept. 15, 2025, p. 3. Condensed text:) The single day of voting (SDV 2025) marked the conclusion of the last electoral cycle preceding the 2026 State Duma elections. Almost 5,000 campaigns were held in 81 federal constituent entities. Elections for regional heads were held in 20 regions; for regional parliaments, in 11; and for legislative assemblies of regional capitals, in 25. A total of almost 46,000 seats were filled. A detailed analysis of the campaign is still to come, but preliminary conclusions can be drawn now…

RFCP VORONEZH BRANCH: UNITED RUSSIA’S WIN IS ‘PYRRHIC’; MULTIPLE VIOLATIONS, IRREGULARITIES PROVED TO VOTERS THAT RESULTS WERE ‘CREATED,’ REFUTING OFFICIAL ASSERTIONS OF FAIR ELECTIONS

(Statement by the Bureau of the RFCP Voronezh Regional Committee. Sovetskaya Rossia, Sept. 18, 2025, p. 2. Condensed text:) . . . Despite the president’s words to the effect that capitalism has outlived its usefulness and the implementation of certain vitally important measures proposed by the RFCP and Communist deputies to overcome the country’s socioeconomic crisis and improve the people’s situation, the government is continuing to pursue its policy of pushing the Communist Party out of Russian politics. Everything is being put into play. Astronomical sums to hype the decoy parties of Noviye Lyudi and the LDPR, which are being used to attract the ballots of protest voters and then transfer them to United Russia’s piggy bank. The tightening of election laws, which means that the Communists, who don’t receive any support from the state apparatus, are forced to spend an enormous amount of effort observing bureaucratic procedures rather than working with voters. Direct persecution by police under the pretext of checks for extremist and antigovernment activities [see, for example, Vol. 77, No. 32, pp. 8 10 – Trans.], even though the RFCP’s contribution to strengthening today’s Russian state is undeniable and known to all of society…

NG: SEVERAL RFCP BRANCHES DECLINE TO CONCEDE LOCAL RESULTS DUE TO VIOLATIONS; EXPERT: SENIOR PARTY BRASS WILL PLAY IT SAFE AT FEDERAL LEVEL, BUT SCRAPPING CRITICAL STANCE WILL RUIN PARTY

(By Darya Garmonenko and Ivan Rodin. Nezavisimaya gazeta, Sept. 18, 2025, p. 1. Condensed text:) Communists in a number of regions have had a negative assessment of the recent elections. But RFCP leaders like Gennady Zyuganov have spoken laconically and, most importantly, in general terms. . . …

RUSSIAN, BELARUSSIAN FORCES DRILL ON MULTIPLE TRAINING GROUNDS, BALTIC AND ARCTIC; OFFICIAL SOURCES: ‘HIGH LEVEL OF COOPERATION’ USING UAVS

(By Ivan Petrov. Rossiiskaya gazeta, Sept. 15, 2025, p. 3. Condensed text:) The Russian-Belarussian Zapad [West] 2025 military exercises, which have captured the attention of the entire West, have completed their main phase and will conclude on Tuesday, Sept. 16. Last weekend, large-scale military operations took place on training grounds in Russia and Belarus, as well as in the waters of the Baltic and Barents Seas…

MEDUZA: IN FIRST ZAPAD DRILLS SINCE 2021, BELARUS INVITES U.S. OFFICERS AMID NEW NATO DEPLOYMENTS TO POLAND AFTER DRONE INCIDENT; PROWAR BLOGS SAY ‘CIRCUS’ SHOWED FEW COMBAT-TESTED CHANGES

([No author indicated.] Meduza, Sept. 17, 2025, https://meduza.io/en/feature/2025/09/17/putin-in-uniform-u-s-observers-and-z-bloggers-reactions. Complete text:) Editors’ Note. – From Sept. 12-15, Russian and Belarussian forces conducted joint military exercises under the banner of Zapad 2025. The drills marked the first in the Zapad series since the fall of 2021, when Moscow used the exercises to begin massing troops along its western border – setting the stage for its invasion of Ukraine the following February [see Vol. 74, No. 8, pp. 9 13]. Officials from both countries said the exercises would simulate enemy attacks and responses to repel them. According to Russian newspaper Kommersant, the drills incorporated lessons from the war in Ukraine, focusing on hybrid strikes, mobile artillery tactics and antidrone warfare. “Particular emphasis was placed on planning the use of nonstrategic nuclear deterrence forces,” the paper reported, noting that commanders described this element as “strictly defensive and preplanned.” Meduza shares the most notable takeaways from the first Zapad exercises since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine…

EXPERTS: WHILE U.S. ‘WARMS’ TOWARD MINSK WITH OBSERVER IN ATTENDANCE, ‘AGGRESSIVE’ EU TAKES AIM AT RUSSIA WITH LARGE IRON DEFENDER DRILLS

(By Yulia Leonova and Polina Berlyand. Izvestia, Sept. 17, 2025, p. 1. Condensed text:). . . . The Zapad 2025 Russian-Belarussian exercises have spooked European leaders and laid bare mounting disagreements between the European Union and the US, [Russian] experts and Western media outlets believe. The Europeans were specifically concerned by a surprise visit that two US military officials made to one of the training areas where the exercises were held: That could be an indicator of the difference in Washington’s and Brussels’s approaches toward the Kremlin. . . …

(By Tatyana Mozolevskaya. Vedomosti, Sept. 18, 2025, https://www.vedomosti.ru/politics/articles/2025/09/18/1140288-zayavleniya-putina. Complete text:) [Russian] President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with parliamentary faction leaders. He congratulated the deputies on the start of the fall session and stressed the importance of voters’ trust.

The head of state discussed with the deputies the country’s economic situation, the development of the social welfare sector, historical memory, and migration problems…

(By Amy Eaglestone, Doctoral candidate at the University of Birmingham and lecturer at Leiden University. Novaya gazeta Europe, Sept. 17, 2025. https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2025/09/17/bellwether-state-en. Complete text:) Moldova plays a vital role in supporting Ukraine. Even though it is among Europe’s poorest countries, it absorbed over 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees at one point during the war and is now home to more than 100,000.

It also helps to ship grain to and from Ukraine through its Danube ports, offering an alternative route and alleviating pressure on Ukraine’s Black Sea routes which are often cut off by Russian blockades…

(By Viktoria Panfilova. Nezavisimaya gazeta, Sept. 15, 2025, p. 1. Condensed text:) The new school year in Kyrgyzstan has been marked by a real crisis in the education sector: Dozens of teachers have left their jobs in just the first two weeks of September. . . .

Bishkek City Parliament Deputy Elizaveta Alymbayeva raised the issue of staff shortages in the capital’s schools at a meeting of the standing committee on social issues held at the end of last week…

(By Richard Sakwa, political analyst. Izvestia, Sept. 17, 2025, p. 3. Complete text:) The conflict in Ukraine has drawn attention to the formation of competing groups that can be broadly described as the US-led political West and the emerging political East. At the heart of the latter is the Chinese-Russian rapprochement, to which a number of powers in the Global South are aligned. We have entered a new era of multipolarity, with a new configuration of actors in international politics.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that the conflict in Ukraine was the result of the West’s inability to adapt to the changed reality. In October 2024, he declared: “Today, the world is experiencing a ‘multipolar moment.’ The transition to a multipolar world order is a natural part of the redistribution of power, reflecting objective changes in the global economy, finance and geopolitics. The West has been stalling longer than others, but it has also begun to realize that this process is not reversible.”…

(By NG international policy correspondent Nadezhda Anatolyevna Melnikova. Nezavisimaya gazeta, Sept. 16, 2025, p. 5. Complete text:) China is rapidly expanding its sphere of influence. By promoting the implementation of important infrastructure projects and providing profitable loans (and China has surpassed the International Monetary Fund in terms of loans since 2016), Beijing is increasing its political influence in the farthest parts of the world. Now it has under its wing not only its closest neighbors – the countries of South, Southeast and Central Asia – but also the countries of Latin America, Africa and even Oceania. However, the historical leaders of the [latter] region are not satisfied with the new balance of power, in which their former “satellites” are increasingly oriented toward China. Australia is one such dissatisfied party.

Australia had been expected to sign an important agreement with Vanuatu on Sept. 9. It provided for the allocation of about $330 million to the Pacific island nation to support initiatives to adapt to climate change, eliminate the consequences of earthquakes, and promote economic and social development. But Vanuatu’s Prime Minister Jotham Napat did not approve the agreement in its current form. At a press conference, he explained that his decision was guided by a concern that the document’s “specific wordings” regarding critical infrastructure could limit Vanuatu’s ability to receive funding from other countries. This means first and foremost China. Beijing is Vanuatu’s biggest creditor. Chinese banks have provided the authorities with funding for the construction of a complex of presidential offices, the country’s parliament, roads and other infrastructure. It would be extremely unprofitable for the island nation to refuse to cooperate with China…

(By Viktoria Kuchina, Krasnaya zvezda, Sept. 18, 2025, p. 7. Complete text:) Editors’ Note. – France is going through arguably one of the most turbulent periods of the 21st century – from massive social protests to failed foreign policy initiatives. Yet instead of addressing its domestic problems, Paris seems to be betting on accelerated militarization. How realistic is this policy, and what is the true state of the French military? Sergei Fyodorov, leading research fellow at the Department of Social and Political Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Europe, provides answers to these and other questions.

Question. – Sergei Matveyevich [Fyodorov], what are the roots of the deep political crisis in France, which is affecting all aspects of national life?…

(By Mikhail Shevchuk. Republic.ru, Sept. 17, 2025, https://republic.ru/posts/116397. Complete text:) No-name spree killers – with no background, manifestos or ideology – are already becoming a trend in the US, as though a kind of immune system has kicked into action in a society overfed with information, and the society has started attacking itself.

Former technical college student Tyler Robinson, arrested on suspicion of murdering right-wing politician Charlie Kirk last week, is still refusing to cooperate with the investigators. His motive remains unclear, though authorities have floated various theories, including influence from social media…